142

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

became actually an obstacle to improvement; and the civil wars which followedher former victories, were of too short a duration to be capable of materiallyremoving the impediment.

Into a very considerable state of depression had the navy of Rome fallen,previous to the usurpation of the purple by Julius Caesar; and even the inva-sion of the most distant countries had very little sensible effect on its character,because the districts which were attacked possessed no fleets capable of en-tering into contest with the assailants. Vessels employed as mere transportsfor the conveyance of the troops, were alone necessary to the irruption into,and complete subjugation of, the most powerful and remote territories ; so that,as has been very properly remarked by one of the ablest modern historians,although the navy maintained by the emperors might seem inadequate to theirgreatness, it was fully sufficient for every useful purpose of government. “ Theambition of the Romans,” adds the same author *, “ was confined to the land,nor was that warlike people ever actuated by the enterprising spirit which hadprompted the navigators of Tyre, of Carthage, and even of Marseilles, toenlarge the bounds of the world, and to explore the most remote coasts of theocean. To the Romans the ocean remained an object of terror rather than ofcuriosity: the whole extent of the Mediterranean, after the destruction ofCarthage, and the extirpation of the pirates, was included within their pro-vinces. T he policy of the emperors was directed only to preserve the peacefuldominion of the sea, and to protect the commerce of their subjects.”

To this remark Mr. Gibbon adds the following short but explicit account ofthat permanent naval establishment fixed by Augustus, when the empire hadnearly reached its zenith, and which was then considered by him, contracted asit may now appear, sufficient to maintain its greatness. “ With these moderateviews,” says he, “ Augustus stationed two permanent fleets in the most conve-nient ports of Italy, the one at Ravenna, on the Adriatic, the other at Mise-num, in the bay of Naples. Experience seems at length to have convincedthe ancients, that as soon as their gallies exceeded two, or at the most threeranks of oars, they were suited rather for vain pomp, than for real service,Augustus himself, in the victory of Actium, had seen the superiority of hisown light frigates (they were called Liburnians) over the lofty but unwieldycastles of his rival. Of these Liburnians he composed the two fleets of Ravennaand Misenum, destined to command the one the eastern, the other the western

* Mr. Gibbon.

division